Swan Lake

Swan Lake is a ballet in four acts, based on a German folktale, with music by peter Ilyich Tchaikovosky.  The first production of the ballet was in Moscow, at the Bolshoi Theater, on May 4, 1877, with choreography by Julius Reisinger. 

In the story, a princess named Odette was turned into a swan by evil magician, Rothbart.  Every midnight she becomes a human again for a few hours.  One Midnight, she is discovered by prince Siegfried who falls madly in love with her and promises to rescue her.  There is a ball in the castle where Siegfried is meant to choose a bride.  Odile, Rothbart’s daughter, enters as a black swan looking exactly like princess Odette.  Siegfried instantly declares she will be his bride.  Odette then appears and sees what has happened, and he recognizes her too, and realizes he has broken his promise.  She rushes off to the lake and he comes to find her.  She forgives him, but rothbart creates a big storm and both Odette and Siegfried are drowned.  In some versions there is another ending.

After Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893, a memorial was made with a rechoreographed second act by Lev Ivanov.  A full production was preformed on January 27, 1895.  Marius Petipa choreographed acts one and three and Ivanov choreographed acts two and four.  This version had many changes in the sequence of music as originally written.

Giselle

Giselle is a ballet that was first performed in 1841.  In the ballet, prince Albercht disguises himself as a commoner and Giselle, a common girl falls in love with him.  Giselle then finds out that Albrecht is already promised to another noble women.  Giselle them loses her mind and dies.  In the second act Albrecht goes to Giselle’s grave.  The ghost of Giselle rises from the grave and is transformed into a Willy.  Willies are unhappy spirits of young girls who were abandoned and died before their wedding day.  They leave their graves during he night to look for revenge.  Albercht walks into the enchanted woods where the Willies live and the Willes try to make Albercht dance until he dies of exhaustion, but Giselle intercedes and saves the prince’s life. 

Nutcracker

           The Nutcracker ballet is based on the story written by E. T. A. Hoffman.  Although what is seen on stage today is different in detail from the original story, the basic plot remains the same.  In 1891, the choreographer Marius Petipa asked Tchaikovsky to write the music for the Nutcracker.  In 1892, the first showing of the Nutcracker took place at the Mariinsky theater of Russia.  In the story, there is a party at a grand house.  The Stahlams are hosting the Christmas party.  Clara and Fritz are the Stahlam's children.  Then, there godfather, Drosselmeyer arrives.  Although his gift to Fritz is quite nice, he give a beautiful nutcracker to Clara and it becomes the hit of the party.  Fritz becomes jealous and breaks it, but Drosselmeyer magically repairs it.  After the guests from the party leave Clara falls asleep holding the nutcracker in her arms.  as the clock strikes midnight strange things start to happen.  Clara shrinks and the toys come to life.  Then, her house gets filled with mice.  The king mouse and the nutcracker battle each other and the nutcracker wins.  The nutcracker turns into a prince and takes Clara to the land of Snow, an enchanted forest wonderland where they are welcomed by dancing snowflakes.  the prince escorts Clara to the Land of Sweets where they are greeted by the sugar Plum fairy and they watch other dances.  then the dream ends and Clara awakens from her dream and finds herself by her Christmas tree with her beloved nutcracker.